Creatures of the Night

All Hallows Eve,
Grave robbing, trick-or treat,
Bewitched, transfixed,
Spirited away by horrors;
Hear The Phantom playing
The Music of the Night,
As the anguished Repo Man, legal assassin,
Turns from man to monster.

I have stalked alongside Michael Myers,
Been paralyzed with terror at Jason’s Ch Ch Ch,
Watched Jack’s madness mount-
Ghosts, redrum, and an axe.
Refused to sleep, for fear that Freddy would invade
My dreams, like some deranged Mr. Sandman.

Nosferatu silently chilled my blood,
While his intoxicating Dracula predecessors,
Thrilled and filled me with tantalizing terror –
“Creatures of the Night…what music they make,” indeed.
Insanely brilliant Doctor Frankenstein
Has built his monster before my eyes on many occasion,
In many different cinematic incarnations.
Formerly alive beings, hungry, mere shells of their former selves,
Have lurched across the screen to feed –
Mindless, monstrous.

So many monsters, villains, and magic-makers,
Alongside their victims, heroes, and heroines,
Reach through black and white and Technicolor,
Making hearts race with anticipation, and
Engaging those most primal of fears.